Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 180 A box office hit
When you go to the cinema with great anticipation and want to see some exciting scenes, all you see are some fleeting shots, and many scenes don't even appear.

How do you feel?
Of course I would go to the "Caoyang Bar" to complain crazily, and then support the poster who posted the pictures, hoping that he can send out more benefits.

"I'm so stupid. I should have thought that some scenes that are not suitable for children would be edited out. In the end, Cao Yang was very generous and I managed to see two scenes that flashed by."

"Haha, that's for sure. China should have learned from the Americans and implemented a grading system instead of a one-size-fits-all approach."

"You guys are so shallow. I didn't go there for the passionate scenes. I went there for the Oscar for Best Picture. I went there for Depp's ass... Depp's Oscar for Best Actor."

"Depp's acting is really good, and he's really perverted. Although I didn't see any passionate scenes, the big scissors were quite powerful this time, and the cut didn't affect the plot at all."

"Depp's acting skills are already very good. He is an artistic geek. He has worked with Tim Burton before and has been nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor twice."

"Cao Yang is really amazing. He helped Depp win not only the Golden Globe but also the Oscar for Best Actor. I think Cao Yang is better than Tim Burton."

"Tim Burton is very powerful in Hollywood. He is a very famous literary and artistic eccentric director. He... forget it. Cao Yang is not a human being. There is still a big gap between Tim Burton and him."

"Don't automatically give foreign directors a promotion whenever they are mentioned. There are not many living directors who can compare with Cao Yang in terms of his achievements in art films."

"By the way, aren't you here to despise big scissors like me? Don't get off topic."

"Putting aside the big scissors for now, aren't there a lot of people saying how good the Americans are and how politically transparent they are? In this movie, I seem to see something a little different..."

"Isn't it Cao Yang who took the photo randomly? American politicians are elected by the people and should serve the grassroots."

“The person above is probably stupid, this is a movie based on a real person, and it won the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, how could it be shot randomly?

I used to think that the Americans were very... Never mind, I think Cao Yang's photos can at least represent a part of the American political ecology."

"So, America isn't as beautiful as we thought, right?"

"Just watching the movies, their politicians can do anything to win votes."

"This happened in the 1970s and 1980s. Maybe it's better now..."

……

The discussion in "Cao Yang Bar" was a bit unexpected. Cao Yang also checked it out online. He thought everyone would be crazy about complaining about the big scissors. He was ready and would let the management of the forum set the pace when the time was right.

I didn’t expect that some people actually saw part of the truth about America from the movie.

Of course, in the post where the picture was uploaded, supporters said they wanted to build a ten-thousand-story building, so that the poster would be motivated to continue uploading pictures.

"Caoyang Bar" is becoming more and more popular. Many people who have seen the movie will come to the bar to participate. At the beginning, the topics are mostly about passionate scenes, but as they talk, they will talk about the plot of the movie.

Many people who yearn for America find this a little hard to accept, so they try to find ways to make up for it.

This will lead to a heated debate.

More and more people gathered, some to watch the fun, some to participate in the discussion, some to look at the pictures...

In short, with the joint efforts of both interested and unintentional people, the "Caoyang Bar" is a bit like the original hot momentum of the "Li Yi Bar". It depends on whether it can be maintained.

As the helmsman of Baidu, Mr. Li is also paying attention to all of this.

He felt that he had to re-evaluate Cao Yang's influence. It was incredible that a movie could make so many people debate whether the American political system was good or bad.

Mr. Li suddenly had an idea that if this movie sells well in North America, Cao Yang's influence in the United States will be further expanded, making him one of the most influential Chinese people.

Next year, when my mother goes to the United States to go public, can she use Cao Yang's influence to tell the Americans a vivid "story"?

The celebrity effect should never be underestimated at any time.

In the next few days, Cao Yang accepted an exclusive interview and stopped caring about the movie, returning to the Beijing Film Studio to do post-production.

During this period, Berman called and asked Cao Yang if he wanted to go to North America to promote the movie. Cao Yang refused, saying that he had to finish the post-production of the movie as soon as possible.

Berman also told Cao Yang that "Meanwhile Milk" had a good opening performance in North America.

Forty-seven million in three days over the weekend. Although it can't be compared with the eighty-three million in three days of "The Passion of the Christ", it is already a very good result.

"Mean Milk" successfully won the weekly box office championship.

Columbia has added 3748 theaters.

Because there are no films that can pose a threat, Behrman said that "Meanwhile Milk" will definitely have no problem making over 100 million yuan, it just depends on how much it can make.

It depends on the results of the second week.

During this period, Depp and Anne Hathaway promoted the show in Europe for two days and came to China for two days to promote the show, which caused a great sensation. The media rushed to interview them and the TV station even aired an exclusive interview.

"Despicable Milk" performed very steadily in its second week in North America, with a little over 36 million in three days over the weekend, a drop of %, which is very good.

The total sales of the three days of the weekend and four days of the week in the second week were 48 million.

Including the 47 million in the first week, the box office has reached 95 million in ten days.

According to the current decline, Columbia believes that the movie should be able to make 140 million yuan at the box office after it is released. Compared with the investment scale of the movie, this is already a big hit.

The North American box office did not surprise Cao Yang too much.

"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" received ten Oscar nominations and sold over 120 million in North America.

Columbia and Miramax spent a lot of money to help this movie win an award, which can also be considered part of the publicity and promotion. Winning an Oscar is the biggest publicity.

What was a bit unexpected was the domestic box office.

In just ten days, "Meanwhile Milk" grossed 96 million, far beyond Cao Yang's expectations.

Cao Yang had a strong feeling that this movie might not only make over 100 million yuan in the country, but might even exceed that by a lot.

A Hollywood movie + an Oscar winner + directed by Cao Yang, these are really powerful movies in China in this era.

President Han is still feeling emotional.

The higher-ups originally wanted Cao Yang to make a domestic film to test the market, but before the film was even released, it was unexpectedly overtaken by another film by Cao Yang.

In today’s domestic market, it’s no coincidence that a movie grosses over 100 million yuan!
President Han was also somewhat puzzled.

According to statistics, as of December 2002, 12, there were 31 registered cinema chains in the country, with 35 cinemas joining the chains and 1024 screens, including 1843 cinemas with computer-networked ticketing.

Between 2002 and 2004, the number of cinemas nationwide that can be counted increased to 1188, and the number of screens increased to 2396.

It seems that the increase is not much, so how could the box office exceed 100 million so easily?

During this period, a seemingly unrelated incident happened, which once again made Cao Yang and "Despicable Milk" a hot topic.

In the eyes of the Chinese public today, if we were to rank directors from all over the world, Spielberg would definitely be in the top three.

In an exclusive interview with a North American radio station, Spielberg mentioned his new film "Memoirs of a Geisha" which he is preparing.

He had planned to shoot this movie five years ago, but he was never satisfied with the script, so he put it on hold.

Only recently did he plan to restart, and he also received support from Colombia.

However, he is no longer planning to be a director, but instead will take a back seat and do this as a producer and supervisor.

He also mentioned that in his heart, the most ideal director is Cao Yang, and he had an in-depth conversation with Director Cao Yang for a long time.

Well, he never mentioned Cao Yang’s refusal. It can be seen that he intended to use Cao Yang to hype up the popularity of the movie.

The host was very knowledgeable and exclaimed directly, "With two world-class directors joining forces, I believe this will definitely be a wonderful movie."

Spielberg just laughed and then revealed another big secret.

This movie, which cost 80 million US dollars, has invited Cannes Film Queen Gao Yuanyuan, Venice Film Queen Yu Feihong, and Berlin Film Queen Li Xiaoran to play the three main female roles...

When the news reached back to China, both the media and the public who saw the news all exclaimed in surprise.

Just think about it, Spielberg plus Cao Yang, plus Gao Yuanyuan, Yu Feihong and Li Xiaoran, this lineup is simply amazing for a domestic film.

Even President Han called Cao Yang personally to ask what was going on. He hadn't heard that the co-production "District 9" that was being prepared had been put on hold. Was Cao Yang going to shoot two movies at once?
How can this be?

However, he was also amazed at the scale of the film and even had some expectations. He was also wondering if China Film could get involved and make it a co-production.

Because of this incident, Cao Yang once again sparked heated discussions among everyone, and "Despicable Milk" also benefited from it, and the box office was strong again.

Not only that, because of this incident, it gave people an intuitive impression that the three of them who have won the three major film actress awards are a little higher in status than Zhang Ziyi?
More than twenty days later, Cao Yang finally completed all the post-production of "Nine-Tailed Demon Fox".

It was at this time that Li Xiaoran and the other three announced one after another that for some reasons, they refused to star in "Memoirs of a Geisha".

Then the media broke the news that "Memoirs of a Geisha" is a movie that reflects the daily life during World War II. It is normal for Chinese people to refuse to play the role of ordinary people.

Moreover, there are a lot of passionate scenes in the movie, and she is already a three-time Best Actress, so she is even less likely to act in them.

Well, the media that broke the news has a very obvious bias, as if only those actors who are eager to secure their status and don't care about passionate scenes or characters living ordinary lives would act in the film.

In North America, "Meanwhile Milk" has been released for 32 days and has already been taken off the screen, having earned over 146 million at the box office.

The influence of the Oscar for Best Picture and the Oscar for Best Actor is reflected in the box office.

On the domestic side, China Film Group has already postponed its release date.

Although it didn’t earn 2.4 million yuan in the first month like "Big Ship", the result of 1.58 million yuan made Mr. Han feel that it still has potential.

Whether the release date is postponed or not has little to do with Cao Yang, even though there is news all over the place about him, hyping up his title as the number one Chinese director.

Cao Yang has rested for a few days and is ready to work on District 9.

(End of this chapter)